INDONESIA: The New Konsepsi

Indonesia's President Sukarno seems to
believe that a new Konsepsi can cure anything, even the ramshackle
government and economy of his sprawling nation of 85.5 million people.
In 1957 he proposed that Indonesia be purged of its innumerable
troubles through "guided democracy," a procedure that he expounded
repeatedly without ever quite explaining. Last week, unable to have his
way, Sukarno was abandoning guided democracy for a new concept which,
instead of "burying" the rival political parties, would only be
intended to "simplify" them.

The problem is one that bothers every new nation -reconciling the need
for system and order with...